Safety appliance for hatchways.



A. S. TRAUB.

SAFETY APPLiANCE FOR HATCHWAYS.

APPLICATION HLED DEC. 24, I915.

Patented 0ct.'3,1916.

2 SHEETSSHEET l A.S.TRAUB. SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR HATCHWAYS.

APPLICATION FILED DECf24. I915.

Patented 0017. 3, 1916.

2 SHEETS-shin 2 ALEXANDER s; TRAUB, or YoNKnns, NEW YORK.

I SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR HATCHWAYS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 3, 1916.

Application filed December 24, 1915. Serial No. 68,466.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALEXANDER S. TRAUB, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Yonkers, county of Westchester, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Appliances for Hatchways, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is designed to safeguard elevator or hoist hatchways, especially those in which the bottom of the shaft consists of a portion of a hall or passageway constituting the entrance to a building, as frequently happens in the older constructions of warehouses and other buildings used for commercial purposes.

The main object is to aiford an automatically closing and locking hatch-guard or trap door which can only be opened manu-' ally by a person in possession of a key to the release mechanism, so that the accidental or unobserved descent of the'lift into the passageway is guarded against and rendered practically impossible, all as hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1, is a sectional elevation of the lower portion of a hatchway and parts adjacent thereto, showing my hatch guard closed; Fig. 2, is a similar View showing the hatch guard open; Fig. 8, is a horizontal section taken upon plane of line 33, Fig. 1; Fig. 4, is a sectional elevation upon a larger scale of the locking and releasing mechanism, illustrating the locking of the hatch guard in its closed, horizontal position; Fig. 5, is a section taken upon planes of line 5-5, Fig. 4; Fig. 6, a view similar to Fig. 4, showing the locking of the hatch guard in its open vertical position; Fig. 7, is a section taken upon plane of line 7'?, Fig. 6; Fig. 8, shows in detail a means of automatically locking the parts in closed relationship.

A, represents a passage way, say, on the ground floor of a commercial or warehouse, or similar situation, B, representing an elevator or hoist shaft, the lower portion of which terminates in said passage way.

A, A represent floors or stories above the passage way A.- I herein show and describe my safety hatch apparatus as applied for the immediate protection of the passage way A, although it may obviously be duplicated for the hatch ways of floors above if so desired.

0, represents symbolically a car, platform,

or hoist (the lift) of any desired or well 1 known construction, suspended upon a cable 0, or equivalent, and raised and lowered in the shaft by well known means.

I), 6, b 6 are uprights positioned at the four corners of the shaft B, and represented in the drawings as made of angle iron.

The hatch guard G, is pivotally mounted, as at 9, between the uprights 6, 6 on one side of the shaft, and when lowered or closed rests against a sustaining bar or stop g, between the Other two prights 6, 6 or is otherwise supported in prescribed position to close the hatchway and protect the passageA. As shown herein the hatch guard is of rectangular grille form, although this is not essential; and it is provided by any suitable means with a counterweight w, which partly compensates for the weight of the hatch guard G, although not fully so, the object being to allow the weight of the hatch guard G, to preponderate sufficiently to cause it to close automatically when released, while the counterweight 'w, facilitates the opening or raising of the hatch guard manually by means of the flexible connection pendant from the rear extension 9 of the hatch guard as shown more particularly in Figs. 1, and 3.

The hatch guard G, is secured in horizontal position by means of, a locking arm 03, rigid upon the vertical rod or shaft d, which is fulcrumed in bearings 6 6 on the upright 6 The upper, horizontal edge 03*, of the locking arm (Z, is bent inward so as to project under the hatch guard extension 9 when the said guard is in horizontal position as in Figs. 1, 3, 4, and 5,a torsion spring (Z attached at one end to the rock shaft cl, and at the other to the upright 6 (as shown in Figs. 4, and 6,) tending constantly to thrust the locking arm at, inward either with its upper horizontal edge d, under the extension 9 of the hatch guard G, as aforesaid, or with its vertical edge (Z resting against said giiard extension 9 or the lateral branch 9 thereofyas in Figs. 2, 6, and 7. It will thus be seen that the function of the hatch guard extension 9 is twofold, in that it affords means for holding the. hatch guard in horizontal position as well as for holding back the looking arm (Z, against the resistance of the.

torsion spring (F, as soon as the hatch guard G is moved from its horizontal position.

The lower portion of the rock shaft d, is provided with a hand lever d, by means of which said shaft and its locking arm cl,

may be rocked back against the resistance of the torsion spring d to release the hatch guard; and means are provided for positively securing the rock shaft against movement when the locking arm d, is under the hatch guard extension 9 until released manually. Obviously this may be accomplished by various well known mechanical expedients and I do not limit myself to the exact construction and arrangement of parts shown in the drawings, in which the rock shaft cl, is formed with a mortise cZ for the reception of the outer end of the spring bolt 8, of any suitable key lock mechanism, represented symbolically by S, in the drawings. I

A trip latch T, pivotally supported on the upright 6 in alinement with the hatch guard extension 9 secures the hatch guard in its open or vertical position by engagement with the end of the extension 9 when the lift C, is lowered as indicated in Fig. 6, in which 0, represents any contacting portion of the car C, and t, a retractile spring which normally holds the trip latch T, against a stop 25, (Fig. 4:) when the car is out of contact with said trip latch T.

The operation is as follows :-The parts being in the relative positions shown in Figs. 1, 3, l, and 5, that is to say with the hatch guard Gr, lowered and positively held in position across the shaft B, thereby protecting the passageway A, and it being desired to use the lift C, for the purpose of either raising or lowering goods or passengers from or to the ground floor or passage way A, it is requisite that a person having the necessary key to the lock S, be present and in position to throw back the bolt 8, which otherwise holds the rock shaft (Z, against axial movement, and in this connection it may be stated that a Yale or anyother form of key lock may be used for the purpose, the bolt being preferably of the spring latch or automatic locking type. The withdrawal of the bolt 8, from the mortise (Z in the rock shaft (Z, admits of the rocking of said shaft (Z, by means of the handle 6Z6, against the resistance of the torsion spring d thereby withdrawing the horizontal edge 6Z of the locking arm cl, from underneath the extension 9 of the hatch guard G, so that the latter may be raised into vertical position by means of the flexible connection attached to said extension g ,the counterweight w, aiding in the operation.

As soon as the hatch guard G, turning on its pivotal support 9, is inclined from its horizontal position its extension 9 is opposed to the retracted vertical edge (Z of the locking arm cl, so that said extension and its lateral branch 9*, will then hold back the locking arm 03, against the resistance of the retractile spring (i which latter tends constantly to rock the shaft d, back into its original position,the lateral branch 9', enabling the extension 9 to perform this function even when the hatch guard has assumed the vertical position shown in Figs. 2, 6, and 7 The hatch guard G, is held in the vertical position with its free edge 9 against a stop 6 as shown in Fig. 2, by means of the flexible connection 9 until the car or lift 0, in its descent encounters and trips the latch T, thereby causing the latter to engage and hold the end of the extension 9 as shown in Fig. 6, so that the hatch guard G, will then be locked in open position as long as any portion (0) of the car remains in contact with the latch T, so that the flexible connection 9 may be released under these conditions.

l/Vhen in its ascent the car G, clears the trip latch T, the retractile spring 2', will restore said latch to its normal position at rest against the stop 23, as shown in Fig. 4. its the car ascends still farther it will irevent the closing of the hatch guard G, until the bottom of the car C, clears the free end of said guard, when the preponderance of weight of the guard G, over the counterweight 10, will cause the guard G, to again and gradually assume the horizontal position with its free end 9 resting against the stop 9, as in Fig. 1,-the counterweight w, rendering this automatic closure of the hatch guard G, less abrupt and forcible than the operation would otherwise be, and this is the main object of the provision of the counterweight w, as it is obvious that the apparatus would be operative without it. Furthermore the counterweight if employed may obviously be applied to the hatch guard G, otherwise than in the identical manner shown herein, by resorting to various mechanical expedients with like result, and without departing from the spirit and intent of my invention in this respect.

As soon as the hatch guard G, assumes its horizontal position the spring (Z rocks 1' the shaft (Z, back into its original position with its locking arm cl, under the extension 9 and the bolt 8, springs into the mortise (Z and thereby again locks the parts in the relative positions first described and shown in Figs. 1, 8, l, and 5, and again safe guarding and protecting the passageway A.

I have herein shown and described operative means for attaining the object of my invention, although I do not wish to limit myself to minor details which may be varied with like result.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,

1. In safety appliances for hatchways of 1 the character designated, the combination of a pivotally supported hatch guard formed with an extension beyond said pivotal support, a rock shaft formed with a locking arm adapted to protrude under said guard extension when the guard is in closed position and with means for effecting the rocking of said shaft, and key-actuated locking means for securing the said rock shaft in prescribed position for the purpose set forth.

2. In safety appliances for hatchways of the character designated, the combination of a pivotally supported and counterweighted hatch guard formed with an extension beyond said pivotal support, a rock shaft formed with a locking arm adapted to pro trude under said guard extension when the guard is in closed position and With means for efi'ecting the rocking of said shaft, and key-actuated locking means for securing the said rock shaft in prescribed position for the purpose set forth.

3. In safety appliances for hatchways of the character designated, the combination of a pivotally supported and counterweighted hatch guard formed with an extension beyond said pivotal support, a rock shaft formed with a locking arm adapted to protrude under said guard extension When the guard is in closed position and with means for effecting the rocking of said shaft, keyactuated locking means for securing said rock shaft in prescribed position, and a retractile spring connected with said rock shaft and tending constantly to hold it in said prescribed position.

4. In safetyappliances for hatchWays of the character designated, the combination of a pivotally supported and counterweighted hatch guard formed With an extension beyond said pivotal support, a rock shaft formed with a locking arm adapted to protrude under said guard extension when the guard is in closed position and with means for effecting the rocking of said shaft, keyactuated locking means for securing said rock shaft in prescribed position, a retractile spring connected With said rock shaft and tending constantly to hold it in said prescribed position, and a flexible connection attached to said rear extension of the hatch guard, for the purpose described.

5. In safety appliances for hatchways of the character designated, the combination of a pivotally supported and counterweighted hatch guard formed With an extension beyond said pivotal support, a rock shaft formed With a locking arm adapted to protrude under said guard extension When the guard is in closed position and With means for effecting the rocking of said shaft, keyactuated locking means for securing said rock shaft in prescribed position, aretractile spring connected With said rock shaft and tending constantly to hold it in said prescribed position, and a trip latch actuated by the lift or car and adapted to lock the hatch guard in open position, as and for the purpose set forth.

ALEXANDER S. TRAUB.

Witnesses:

DOROTHY MIATT, G100. WM. MIATT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C. 

